What Is It That Makes Philly Fans So...Unique?

Jon Wurster grew up outside of Philadelphia in a largely-Mennonite farm town called Harleysville. Wurster—whom you might recognize as the drummer from Superchunk, the Mountain Goats, or any number of respected indie rock projects—spent his formative years going to games at Veterans Stadium (RIP) to fully observe the unique species that is the Philly sports fan. His character, Philly Boy Roy, a frequent caller to The Best Show, almost too perfectly distills the misplaced arrogance of the sports fan with too much on the line and too much time on his hands. So who better to clarify the psychology of the Eagles fanatics on this historic weekend? I chatted with Wurster as he prepared to travel to Minneapolis and play a pre-Super Bowl outdoor show with Bob Mould, and asked him to explain a few things, like what the hell is a Wawa?

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How would you describe the typical Philly sports fan?

Have you ever seen that Tom Cruise movie All The Right Moves? It's kind of the same thing. The gist of the film is this small town, a mining town, comes together to support its football team. That's what kind of keeps them alive, that’s their identity. I feel like there are big similarities with the Philadelphia sports fans, where it's very working class. You’re in the shadow of these two other big cities, Washington D.C. and New York, and you kind of always feel like: These guys all think they’re better than we are. And, you know, when your team gets on a roll…there’s no better example of that than what's going to happen on Sunday. It lifts you up to this place that you're hoping to be at all year. And it doesn't happen often, so when it does happen, you’re just insane with pride. With Philly people, it just always goes to their head. You know, Tom (Scharpling, of The Best Show) and I created this character a long time ago, Philly Boy Roy. And he embodies this phenomenon where at the smallest glimpse of success for the Eagles or the Sixers, it just goes completely to his head and he becomes unreasonable.

I’m not sure if you saw this clip of the guy trying to drive a dune buggy up the Art Museum steps.

Excuse me?

When the Eagles beat the Vikings. For the longest time, one of the running jokes we have for Philly Boy Roy is he’ll reference how he's going wilding on his dune buggy. Just the most ridiculous vehicle for anyone to drive through the streets. And then it became real! It’s a real life thing! So the Philly fans never disappoint in terms of taking it up to a notch that would be considered unbelievable.

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Where does one even get a dune buggy?

Great question. Where do they drive it? Do they go down the shore?

Where are the dunes?

There are no dunes. [Philly Boy Roy voice] Drive down to the Poconos! Poconos got some dunes on their beaches!

It sounds like in non-winning seasons, there's a kind of an anger.

Oh, absolutely. I almost feel like the Philly fans prefers that, because that can allow them to be more socially irresponsible and bordering on violent. The one thing that always comes to mind for the general public when they talk about Philly fans is them whipping batteries onto the field, and throwing snowballs at Santa. That kind of thing. And I do think that Philly fans, more than other fans, take a certain pride in how reprehensible they can be.

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Why do you think that is?

You know, I don’t know! There’s just a certain kind of ne'er do well, kind of like…scummy thing? [Laughs] It’s a thing I’m not saying by any means that most Philadelphians have, but there is a very minor, very vocal group that exhibits those traits and unfortunately they give the whole town a bad name.

Why do you think Philly Boy Roy has connected the way he has?

I think because, like a lot of almost all the characters that we come up with, there’s this weird arrogance that’s completely unearned. He rides that for all it's worth. There's also thing that Tom and I talk about a lot, the phenomenon of the fan saying “we.” We did this. And Roy definitely does a lot of that. Oh, we did this and it was so good, yet he had absolutely no responsibility for any of the victories. I think also Roy a good heart, too. And I think probably people pick up on that. But that heart is just completely fogged over by all the fucked-up things he does.

You make a lot of local references in your Philly Boy Roy calls, to things like Wawa. What are some insider terms and references the world should know about? For one, what is a Wawa?

Wawa is the greatest convenience store to have ever existed. It is like a gas station convenience store, and its best feature is they've got a hoagie station where you can buy hoagie sandwiches and they've got a computerized ordering menu.

No shit.

And people talk about the Sheetz chain, which is also an east coast thing, but it's nowhere near as good as Wawa. At Wawa, you can go and you can order exactly what you want, you can get a Shorti hoagie, or you can get a normal size, you can get extra oregano, bell peppers, provolone, American cheese, you know, it's just an endless hoagie buffet! So that's a that's a big one. Tastykake baked goods, that’s out of Philly. Peanut Chews, which is a great candy. Also there’s the warring cheesesteak restaurants: Jim’s, Pat’s, and Geno’s.

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Do you have a favorite?

I’m into Jim’s. Because Jim’s is on South Street, so that’s kind of the punk rock cheesesteak place. They have great photos and autographs on the wall, Hall & Oates, people like that. Although, I could be wrong, but I think Pat’s Steaks is where the heavy metal band Cinderella filmed a commercial. So that's that's a big check in their favor, obviously.

Why do you think Philly sports fans get such a bad rap?

Well I think it’s a small minority as I said have proven that they deserve that bad rap, you know, by whipping snowballs at Santa, and batteries at players. And, I don't know if this happens or has happened in any other professional sports stadium, but there was a jail underneath the stadium. There was a jail down there. So if these guys deserve a jail, then they deserve the rap they’ve got.

What do you think we can expect on Sunday from the Eagles fans who make the trip?

You know it's tough, because I remember when the Vikings game came to Philly two weeks ago there was a clip of someone from the Vikings organization warning Vikings fans, like, “You know, if you go down there, it can be a bad scene.” So I almost feel like, what's worse: the Philadelphia redneck or the New England redneck? I’ve had some scarier times in Boston and Providence than I have in Philly. Where it’s like, I'm afraid for my life, just walking down the street in Boston and Providence. So I think it's going to be a match of the titans. It might not be a fair fight on the football field, but in terms of ne'er do wells at their best-slash-worst, I don't think it gets any better than the Philly redneck and the New England redneck.

But who’s your money on?

Philly! Gotta be. What kind of ne’er do well Philly redneck am I if I don’t throw my lot in with my people?

Superchunk’s new album What A Time To Be Alive will be released on Merge Records on February 16. Jon will be drumming for the Bob Mould Band as part of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis’ Super Bowl LIVE at the Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis on Saturday, February 3.

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